20 WHEATEAR. 



91° W. long. Greenland appears to be the breeding-place of a large 

 race which passes through our islands from the middle of April on- 

 wards, and seems to be somewhat addicted to perching on trees. 

 Our ordinary form breeds throughout Europe, Siberia, Mongolia, and, 

 at suitable elevations, in Asia Minor and Algeria ; it has also, of late 

 years, established itself in the Azores. The smallest examples are 

 found in Syria. Its winter migrations extend to a little south of the 

 Equator ; crossing Bering's Sea from Kamschatka it visits Alaska ; 

 while as a straggler it has occurred in Colorado, the eastern portions 

 of the United States and Canada, and the Bermudas. 



About the middle of April the loose nest of dry grass, lined with 

 rabbits' fur, hair, and feathers, is placed in rabbit-burrows, crevices 

 of stone walls, peat-stacks on the moors, or under rocks and fallow- 

 clods ; the eggs, 5-6, often 7, being of a very pale blue, some- 

 times minutely dotted with purple : average measurements '8 by 

 •6 in. Two broods are produced in the season. The old birds are 

 wary and do not easily betray the situation of their treasure. The 

 song of the male, often uttered on the wing, is rather pretty ; and the 

 bird also displays considerable powers of imitating other species. 

 Its food consists of small spiders, insects — often captured flying — 

 and their larvae. 



The name has no connection with wheat, but is a corruption of 

 7ohite, and of the Anglo-Saxon cers, for which the modern equivalent 

 is 'rump'; and in fact as "white-rumps" this species and its con- 

 geners are known in every European language. 



Adult male in summer : forehead and eye-streak white ; lores and 

 ear-coverts black ; head, neck and back grey; wings nearly black ; 

 rump white ; the two central tail-feathers black nearly to the base, 

 the others white with broad black tips ; under parts white, with only 

 a faint tinge of buff on the throat in old birds ; under wing-coverts 

 and axillaries mottled with dark grey and white ; bill, legs and 

 feet black. In autumn the new feathers are so broadly margined with 

 rufous-brown that the male much resembles the female ; and even on 

 the spring arrival many of the upper feathers still retain buff mar- 

 gins. Length 6 in. ; wing to tip of 3rd and longest quill, 375 in. 

 The female differs in having the ear-coverts dark brown ; upper parts 

 hair-brown ; under parts buff : not unlike the south-eastern S. isabel- 

 lina, in which, however, the under wmg-coveris are tvhite. The 

 young are slightly spotted above and below, with buff tips and 

 margins to the tail- and wing- feathers. 



